After practicing law for a couple of years, Oliver J. Gleeson knew he needed to make a change. He didn't want to wake up 10 years later, miserable with his career.  

Oliver quit his job at the law firm and set off on his travels, ending up in Japan and in his words, he was living the perfect life! After spending some time with ex-Pats he realized he enjoyed travelling but wanted to get back to Canada. 

Oliver accepted a role at Second Dimension International Marketing, joining a 7-person event marketing firm. Over 14 years, Oliver would rise to the position of Executive Vice-President and Corporate Counsel. Even though it was 14 years, Oliver said it was like working for 7 different companies as they continually evolved and his responsibilities changed. Oliver is currently the President of Salient Map Executive Consultancy, which provides Executive Consulting, Coaching and Training for privately-owned companies that believe they are great at what they do, but not great at growing their business (and don’t possess the internal ability to fix it themselves).

Recently he decided to add a new offering and made coaching early career professionals a key part of his business. Oliver's goal is to impact 10 million early career professionals with the belief that - "Wherever you are in your career, you can think, act and perform like a C-level executive right now."

You can follow or connect with Oliver on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivergleeson/

Show notes: 

• 1:30 - 3 Universities in 3 different provinces… early education and playing College Football
• 9:10 - Law and why go to Law School
• 10:45 - Practicing Law and the decision that it may not be the path for Oliver
• 14:30 - “get out…get out while you can [from your career practicing law]”
• 15:15 - making the commitment and decision to go travel the world; 21 Countries
• 16:05 - “it showed me I had value” - a conversation with the law firm’s Sr. Partner
• 20:50 - returning from Japan and embarking on a career with a 7-person company at the time called SDI Marketing (formerly Second Dimension International)
• 27:10 - was there something that stood out over the 14 years at SDI that helped you continue to grow and evolve? 
• 29:30 - launching an event in Dohar and pitching for Shell to become a key partner 
• 33:10 - Oliver's focus on supporting early career professionals and his passion for helping others grow and wanting to impact 10 million early career professionals. 
• 39:30 - stepping out of your comfort zone. As a lawyer by training, were you always a natural speaker?